Are we overhyping telemedicine?

With Michelle Killoran

Telemedicine has seen a huge wave of new users in the past year. It’s not surprising. With the pandemic, more people than ever before opted to see their doctors online. The numbers were staggering, especially at the outset. Take Ochsner Health in Louisiana, which conducted more than a 120,000 virtual consultations in the space of a few months in early 2020. That was up from 3,300 in all of 2019.

But we also witnessed the limitations of virtual care. There are still plenty of reasons why it’s better for a patient to get treated in person.